No abstract

No abstract

Keywords:Carbon capture and utilisation CO 2 economy CO 2 -based polyols CO 2 emissions reduction Pedigree analysis A B S T R A C T CO 2 utilisation is gaining interest as a potential element towards a sustainable economy. CO 2 can be used as feedstock in the synthesis of fuels, chemicals and polymers. This study presents a prospective assessment of carbon capture from a hydrogen unit at a refinery, where the CO 2 is either stored, or partly stored and partly utilised for polyols production. A methodology integrating technical, economic and environmental models with uncertainty analysis is used to assess the performance of carbon capture and storage or utilisation at the refinery.Results show that only 10% of the CO 2 captured from an industrial hydrogen unit can be utilised in a commercial-scale polyol plant. This option has limited potential for large scale CO 2 mitigation from industrial sources. However, CO 2 capture from a hydrogen unit and its utilisation for the synthesis of polyols provides an interesting alternative from an economic perspective. The costs of CO 2 -based polyol are estimated at 1200 €/t polyol, 16% lower than those of conventional polyol. Furthermore, the costs of storing the remaining CO 2 are offset by the benefits of cheaper polyol production. Therefore, the combination of CO 2 capture and partial utilisation provides an improved business case over capture and storage alone. The environmental assessment shows that the climate change potential of this CO 2 utilisation system is 23% lower compared to a reference case in which no CO 2 is captured at the refinery. Five other environmental impact categories included in this study present slightly better performance for the utilisation case than for the reference case.